Top dressing lawns is one of those old perhaps misconceived practices from years gone by, which many people adhered to and undertook often out of ignorance. There are legitimate reasons to top dress lawns which will add to the health of the lawn or otherwise help to repair a lawn. So let’s separate fact from fiction and bad habits from good lawn management.
In years past there was a habit in different parts of Australia whereby many lawn owners would top dress their lawns once every few years, usually with a yellow sand or some other cheap soil type. Lawn owners would do this is often with a wrong belief that such a practice helps make the lawn healthy, or encourages new lawn growth if the lawn was looking a little the worse for wear.
In times past of so little readily available and inexpensive knowledge like we have today, many people would pick up home and garden tips and tricks from neighbours or family, no matter if those ideas were right or wrong, any such knowledge could easily spread and remain entrenched in peoples minds for decades.
And such as it was with this lawn top dressing idea, sure there may have been some new green shoots and growth from the lawn after top dressing, but this was only the lawn re-establishing itself back on top of the layer of sand or soil we just dumped on top of it. It wasn’t improving lawn or soil health at all, and if the lawn pr soil actually did have underlying problems, then these wouldn’t be solved during this process.
While I still see people following this old advice, it’s really time to let it go forever. It’s a waste of money and our time, and does nothing for our lawns at all. So let’s instead look at right ways to top dress lawns.
Top Dress Entire Lawns To Modify Soil Problems
If our lawns are growing on top of very poor quality sandy soil, then we can indeed top dress the entire lawn, just like they did in the old days, with one caveat… we never top dress with sand, instead we would want a rich garden type soil to spread out over the entire lawn area, and this would help in improving soil quality for such lawns.
Mulch mowing would also be an essential piece of advice for lawns growing in poor and sandy soils.
Likewise if our lawns were growing in clay soils, then it would be wise practice to think about top dressing the entire lawn in this circumstance too. And here is the single exception of top dressing with sand. We would indeed want to top dress a heavy clay lawn soil with sand, without laying it on too thick of course. A thin layer of sand which might intermingle with the underlying soil over years would be our aim with this.
In both these examples we could significantly improve the results of our lawn top dressing to improve the underlying soil by FIRST lawn coring the entire lawn. Professional lawn coring will punch largish open holes across the lawn and into the soil, and when lawn coring is completed then we apply the top dressing most suitable for our soil needs. The organic soil or the sandy soil then falls directly into all those holes, which in turn will significantly improve the overall effect of soil improvement we were aiming for in the first place.
Top Dressing Patches In Lawns
We may have patches in our lawn which are in poor health due to a soil problem, in this case we might want to remove the soil around that area of poor soil and poor lawn health, to replace the underlying soil with a soil of better quality. Oftentimes the best soil to replace the old soil with would be soil from the gardens of the same property, so as we’re using the same soil.
Alternatively we could use a richer store bought soil for the same purpose if we felt as though the lawn needed a bit of a boost in that particular area.
The other reason to top dress patches in lawns would be to fill in holes or undulations in the lawn, in which case we once again just use soil already present on the property, or we could use a store bought soil if we believed the lawn or soil in that area needed improving.
Top Dressing Uneven Lawns
The last reason why we top dress lawns is to even out a lawn which may be uneven, so as to give the lawn a more flat and uniform appearance, and we can do this in a couple of different ways.
The first method is to simply top dress the affected area with soil from the property, or to perhaps get an appropriate lawn type soil, or perhaps a sandy loam from the soil shop, be sure to ask for advice for your particular area where you live.
If we’re looking to even out an area of perhaps only a centimetre or two, then we should be right to just go ahead and apply the amount of soil necessary to that area in one go. Of course we need to ensure the lawn is in an active growing season, and we would need to flatten out and even out the applied soil, then also apply some lawn fertiliser to the entire lawn area, including the area we just top dressed and then to keep the lawn well watered as it repairs over the next months.
Alternatively for larger depressions in the lawn we could either cover it all in one go with the soil of our choice (essentially killing the old lawn underneath) and let the surrounding lawn spread over the top dressed area to repair it, or even perhaps buy an extra roll of turf if needed. For deeper depressions could also remove the lawn in the affected area, then apply and compact the top dressing soil, and then put the old lawn back down again on top of the top dressed area.
I will cover this information in another article on the site in more detail.
please read the terms to republish articles before republishing
you do not need to ask permission to republish - so long as you abide by the republishing terms
some website types are banned from republishing articles from this website
while all lawn care articles are freely shared - they remain original and copyright to lawnmowingcontractor.com
